Companies and organizations increasingly use videoconferencing to reduce traveling expenses and to save time. To create a satisfactory videoconference, a videoconferencing system has to emulate what participants would expect during a regular, face-to-face meeting with other participants, including the ability to have sub-conference with a particular subset of the participants.
In one example, participants of a face-to-face meeting in a business environment may belong to different groups, organizations, etc., each holding its own videoconferences from time to time. When videoconferencing, one of the participants, may wish to connect to two or more videoconferences, which might be happening at the same. For example, a business manager may wish to participate in a sales videoconference, and also in a marketing videoconference. In yet another example, a class of students may be divided into two or more groups (e.g., two or more sub-conferences) where each group works independently, and in which the lecturer splits time between the groups.
Unfortunately, current videoconferencing systems only allow a participant to conduct a single videoconference because a common videoconference endpoint cannot participate in two or more videoconferences (video sessions) simultaneously. Therefore, participants that would like to participate in more than one videoconference are required to use an outside communication source, such as a telephone, a cellular telephone, Short Message System (SMS) messaging, etc, to participate in the other videconference(s) of interest that they are not currently attending.
As is known in the art, a videoconferencing endpoint is a terminal on a network. The endpoint is capable of providing real-time, two-way audio and visual communication with other endpoints or a multipoint control unit (MCU). A multimedia endpoint may provide audio and video, or audio, video, and data. An MCU is a videoconference controlling entity typically located in a node of the network. The MCU receives several channels from access ports, processes audiovisual signals according to certain criteria, and distributes the audiovisual signals to the connected channels. The information communicated between the endpoints and the MCU includes control signals, indicators, audio, video, and/or data. An example of an MCU is the MGC-100, which is available from Polycom Inc., the assignee of the present disclosure. Additional information about the MCG-100 can be found at the website of www.polycom.com. Additional information on an endpoint (terminal) and an MCU can be found in the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) standards H.320, H.321, and H.323.
Video conferences of the prior art are rigidly defined in terms of who can join the videoconference and who can control aspects of the videoconference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/144,561, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a system and a method for conducting a private audio session during a main audio or videoconference. However, this application does not allow a video conferee to choose between various associated videoconferences that are currently being administered by an MCU.